A month after a coroner’s findings into the deaths of 13 young Indigenous people, governments have been criticised for a “lack of action” by former sportsman turned mental health campaigner Joe Williams.

Mr Williams made the comments while working with school children and youth workers in the east Kimberley town of Kununurra with his suicide prevention and wellbeing education organisation, The Enemy Within.

But it was after surviving an attempted suicide in 2012 when he found his life’s passion.

“When you’re sitting inside a mental health ward and you’ve got people hovering around you, and doctors telling you that you’re lucky to be alive, that’s when you start to question the purpose of your life,” he said.

“My real purpose in life is about helping other people who struggle with mental pain.”

Since that time he has worked in suicide prevention in some of the most remote communities across Australia.

His experience has led him to believe that a coordinated national response to suicide is needed urgently.

“It’s about normalising that conversation and having the conversation with kids that speaking about this stuff is actually good,” Mr Williams said.

“That’s where the community and the country can come together in healing and having difficult conversations because we’re losing lives here.”

The WA Government has said it will formally respond to the coroner’s findings in the coming weeks.